Yesterday we discussed one of the problems with using the fake fantasy maps from CES and BYU to teach the Book of Mormon.
Ether 2:9 is meaningless if the land the Jaredites occupied is imaginary.
“And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.” (Ether 2:9)
Portraying the Book of Mormon in a fictional setting hardly inspires confidence that the book Joseph translated is an authentic history.
President Marion G. Romney showed a better way to teach Ether 2:9 when he spoke about America’s Destiny many years ago in General Conference.
You can read some of his talk here, but for some reason it is truncated.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1975/10/americas-destiny?lang=eng
You can read all of his talk here:
http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/04/conference-classic-destiny.html
You can watch his talk here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te4F9rWaSAk
Excerpts:
Among the questions frequently raised in connection with our upcoming national bicentennial is “Can we maintain our basic freedoms, peace, and prosperity for another 200 years?”
The answer to this question is yes, if we shall individually repent and conform to the laws of the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ….
It is my purpose in making these remarks to point out from the record of ancient inhabitants of America that the foregoing decrees have been carried out.
In the western part of the state of New York near Palmyra is a prominent hill known as the “hill Cumorah.” (Morm. 6:6.) On July twenty-fifth of this year, as I stood on the crest of that hill admiring with awe the breathtaking panorama which stretched out before me on every hand, my mind reverted to the events which occurred in that vicinity some twenty-five centuries ago—events which brought to an end the great Jaredite nation….
As I contemplated this tragic scene from the crest of Cumorah and viewed the beautiful land of the Restoration as it appears today, I cried in my soul, “How could it have happened?”…
Pursuant to this decree concerning the land of America, the Jaredites were swept off in the manner we have reviewed, because, rebelling against the laws of Jesus Christ—the God of the land—they “ripened in iniquity.”
Nor were they the only people who anciently were divinely led to this choice land to grow in righteousness to be a mighty nation and then to deteriorate in wickedness until they ripened in iniquity and were, pursuant to God’s decree, swept off….
This second civilization to which I refer, the Nephites, flourished in America between 600 B.C. and A.D. 400. Their civilization came to an end for the same reason, at the same place, and in the same manner as did the Jaredites’. From the account of their death struggle, I quote:
“And now,” says Mormon, their historian, “I finish my record concerning the destruction of my people, the Nephites. And it came to pass that we did march forth before the Lamanites … to the land of Cumorah. … And when … we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah, … my people, with their wives and their children, did … behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them….
The tragic fate of the Jaredite and the Nephite civilizations is proof positive that the Lord meant it when he said that this “is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.” (Ether 2:9.) …
Source: About Central America
2 thoughts on “Swept off America”
There are several problems with this view. One is the complete lack of any evidence of volcanic activity in the Eastern United States for over two million years. The eruption described in 3rd Nephi isn’t what one could ascribe to an average eruption. It is a major eruption, and there have only been a handful of such eruptions in modern history. I only know of one at the time of Christ. It was the eruption of Apoyeque in Nicaragua. It was a force 6 on the VEI scale, about 20 times more violent that Mount Saint Helens. It completely changed the face of the land in Nicaragua.
I have little doubt that Nephites lived in North America, as several ships departed to the north, never to be seen again. Moroni probably went looking for them when he became persona non-grata in his own land. This is another problem with your model. Where are the Nephites that went north? Canada? Alaska? There is no sign of them, if they are not the mound builders.
Another problem is gold. When Lehi and his party landed in the New World, Nephi said that gold was plentiful, as well as sliver and copper. The Great Lakes region only has copper. Gold and silver have never been plentiful in any part of the Eastern United States. I should also point out that Nephi had only one way to tell if gold, sliver and copper were plentiful. There had to be people already there. He likely went to a market, where gold, silver and copper were sold. He didn’t spend his life as a prospector. He was the Nephite king. Few places had markets where gold, silver and copper could be found. Nicaragua was one of those places.
Another thing that is usually ignored, is that the people of Zarahemla were more numerous than the Nephites, and spoke a different language. The people of Zarahemla adopted Mosiah as their king, but that didn’t make them literate. It is more likely that the Nephite language became almost a lost art, remembered by only a few. The people of Zarahemla became Nephites, but that wasn’t their geneology. It was their religion or politic.
According to the Book of Mormon, it was the people to the north that wrote their history on stone. That really doesn’t sound like Canada. I suppose you could make the case that the Michigan relics were made by the Jaredites, but that turns the geography completely around.
I only know of one legend, outside of the Book of Mormon, where royal family records are kept on gold plates. It is in the Dresden Codex. According to this record, they were kept in the capital city, which now, incidentally, is under water.
This is a perfect example of fake M2CNN news. The Book of Mormon never mentions any volcanoes. M2C had to invent volcanoes because they are so prevalent in Mesoamerica.
I realize facts don’t matter when people are confirming their biases, but the first gold rush in the U.S. was in North Carolina. The next one was in north Georgia, where a gold mine operated for over 100 years. Native Americans showed De Soto how they mined and worked with gold. Over 800,000 troy ounces have been mined there. Fifteen million tons of copper have been mined from the Burra Burra mine in Tennessee, the area of the Land of Nephi.
The only record of anyone in the Book of Mormon writing a history on stone was the Jaredite Coriantumr, who wrote on the stone because he couldn’t communicate with the people of Zarahemla. The prophets kept special records on metal plates, but otherwise writings were combustible.
All of this has been discussed at length, but Book of Mormon Central and the rest of the M2C citation cartel doesn’t want people to know about it because most Church members, once they learn what the prophets have taught and what evidence supports and corroborates those teachings, reject M2C. That said, people can believe whatever they want. At Moroni’s America we just offer an alternative to M2C. People can take it or leave it.
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